ATLANTA (AP) – Protesters marched and rallied in Atlanta Tuesday to protest a grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri.
A large group of students walked from Morehouse College to the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, peacefully chanting, singing and waving signs. Students at nearby Clark Atlanta University, another historically black college, held a peace rally on their campus that also included students from Spelman College and Morehouse.
Several hundred people later gathered in at Underground Atlanta, a shopping area in the heart of the city. They listened to speakers who urged them to put pressure on the justice system and waved signs with slogans including, “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Killer Cops.”
The protests came on the heels of demonstrations by thousands of people in several U.S. cities late Monday to protest the grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer who on Aug. 9 killed Michael Brown, who was black.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in a statement urged everyone taking part in demonstrations to do so peacefully and also urged law enforcement to use restraint and respect the protesters’ right to assemble. In Ferguson, people burned buildings and looted stores after the decision was read.